Lin Wanxing bought cigarettes and caught up with the main group. The students walked, stopping occasionally and taking turns carrying the boxes, finally stopping at the top floor.

The motion-sensor lights came on, revealing an iron gate blocking the stairway.

The students were panting heavily. Lin Wanxing hurriedly took out her keys, but after a series of jingling and clanging, none of them could open the gate.

Lin Wanxing suddenly panicked. She took out her phone, intending to call the rental agency, when Wang Fa made his move.

If their earlier talk at the stairwell entrance about “living together” seemed like teasing, then as Wang Fa put down his box, took out his keys, and smoothly opened the iron gate in one fluid motion, the students’ eyes widened in shock.

Beyond the iron gate was a rooftop terrace.

The fifth floor wasn’t particularly high, but the rooftop was spacious, with the unobstructed night sky rushing toward them.

Looking out, they could see the sports field immersed in the darkness nearby, with lights dotting its edges; further away stood the stately high school buildings with their swaying tree shadows; and even further, the city lights shone brightly, dispersing infinitely into the night.

The gentle autumn evening breeze brushed past their hair and necks. Lin Wanxing was speechless with awe for a moment.

A cardboard box landed with a heavy thud on the rooftop’s cement floor, bringing her back to reality.

Wang Fa stood beside her, holding out one hand. Lin Wanxing passed him the cigarettes she had just bought. Perhaps because the students were present, Wang Fa took the cigarette pack, turned it over, and tucked it back into his athletic casual wear pocket.

“Ahem.”

“Ahem, ahem.”

The students cleared their throats dramatically.

The boys, having just carried heavy items, had flushed red faces with exaggerated expressions, looking at her, then at Wang Fa.

On the south side of the rooftop stood two long rooms side by side. The light was on in the left room, with outdoor sun umbrellas and beach chairs arranged at the entrance, and opened beer cans on the table—clearly belonging to her tenant.

Wang Fa showed no intention of opening his door and going home; instead, he walked directly to the sun umbrella and sat down.

Yu Ming followed Wang Fa eagerly — “Coach, are you living together with our teacher?”

Wang Fa held a can with one hand, took a sip, and casually said, “I’m not sure. Everything depends on what your Teacher Lin says.”

“Ooh~!”

Seeing the students about to start teasing again, Lin Wanxing quickly surrendered with raised hands. She took out her jingling bundle of keys and went to the door of the room on the right — “No, we’re not. It’s just that our school doesn’t allow intern teachers to stay in dormitories anymore, so I moved here. This is my home,” Lin Wanxing emphasized.

“What about the coach? Is this his home too?” Chen Jianghe asked doubtfully.

“He is my tenant,” Lin Wanxing pushed open the door, looking back at the students outside, and said, “This building belongs to me.”

Under the students’ shocked and speechless gazes, Lin Wanxing felt a bit of “successful revenge” satisfaction.

This row of rooms on the rooftop was originally an “illegal structure.” However, according to what she had heard, it was already there when her grandparents bought the building, so nobody had interfered with it over all these years.

The room was clean—Lin Wanxing had asked the rental agency to clean it in advance—but also quite simple. The students helped her carry the cardboard boxes inside, looking around curiously.

“You’re going to live here?” Qi Liang asked somewhat disdainfully. “You’re so rich, why don’t you rent a better place?”

Lin Wanxing put down her wheeled suitcase and smiled, “And why are you all so free that you’ve come to my home?”

This change of subject was quite abrupt, not giving the students time to react.

Lin Wanxing walked straight out of the room. She pulled a chair across from Wang Fa and sat down, indicating “confess and receive leniency, resist and face severity.”

The students looked at each other, and finally, everyone’s gaze fell on Fu Xinshu.

Lin Wanxing was somewhat surprised that Fu Xinshu could be the ringleader of mischief.

At this moment, Fu Xinshu took out a workbook from his backpack. He flipped to a certain page, spread it flat, and placed it in front of her.

Fu Xinshu — “I found this when I was doing homework today.”

The math workbook that was spread open had a hand-drawn map on it. With the help of the light from inside the room, they could vaguely see colorful, crooked lines on the map.

The map was drawn on a trigonometric function problem, with the horizontal and vertical axes serving as perfect coordinates. The pens used were common watercolor markers. Though the drawing was casual, it clearly labeled “Hongjing Eighth Middle School,” “Old Stadium,” and their current location, “7 Wutong Road.”

The building at “7 Wutong Road” was drawn as a multi-level treasure box, but the floor marked as containing treasure wasn’t the rooftop, but the second floor.

Many fuzzy memories surfaced in Lin Wanxing’s mind as she looked at Fu Xinshu incredulously — “Who gave this to you?”

“I don’t know,” Fu Xinshu paused, “But later I thought, is this the same as what Qin Ao and the others received?”

“So you contacted Qin Ao and them?”

“Yes.”

Qi Liang looked bewildered, and Lin Wanxing found it unbelievable.

She took out the heavy set of keys the agency had given her from her pocket and, following the labels attached to them, found the ones for the second floor.

“Shall we go take a look?” she said.

The motion-sensor lights in the stairwell suddenly brightened and then dimmed as they descended, like traveling through a long corridor of memories.

Like the fifth floor, there was also an iron door of the same color at the second-floor stairwell. But unlike the fifth floor, when Lin Wanxing took out her key and pushed open the stairwell door, stale, polluted air rushed toward them.

Here, the students’ breathing and footsteps also became lighter.

Before them was a dim corridor. By the light from the stairwell outside, they could vaguely see terrazzo floor tiles and something pasted on the walls, but the depths of the corridor were completely dark.

The students tiptoed through the hallway looking for a switch. Lin Wanxing walked forward a few steps and felt for the position in her memory. With a soft click, the overhead incandescent light flickered on, illuminating the entire corridor.

On the walls were old bulletin boards. On both sides of the corridor were two classrooms with calligraphy and sketches posted on the walls, and even excellent test papers. And on the wall at the end of the corridor hung a sign.

It read “Yuan Yuan After-School Tutoring Class” in large characters.